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Wednesday 5 February 2014

Petty bureaucracy trumps Justice in the Royal Courts

Lord of Injustice Jackson?

Petty bureaucracy trumps Justice in the Royal Courts



As a solicitor practicing in Civil Litigation and as a member (also past President) of my local Law Society, I attended an interesting talk on Thursday given by Matthew Harman, a Partner in the Costs Lawyers, Harmans Costs, Ardenham Lane House, Ardenham Lane, Aylesbury, Bucks HP19 8AA, who seemed very able and switched on talking about the effect of the latest fad of “Reforms” in Civil Litigation. These are known as the “Jackson Reforms”, after Lord Justice Jackson.


Lord Justice Jackson seems to be the very model of the sort of Judge that Derry Irvine and the Labour Party were keen to appoint during their years in office. That is to say he is very Statist in his philosophy about Law, he is very bureaucratically minded and evidently he is not very interested in Justice. That is with the meaning that “Justice” would mean to any right- thinking ordinary Englishman, whether he be (in the traditional phrase) on the back of the “Clapham Omnibus” or not!


Jackson also appears to have the very dogmatic adherence to the details of rules of a petty town hall bureaucrat. Indeed under the Jackson Reforms “Justice” has been redefined to be fundamentally about the administrative convenience of the Court and the State!


As part of this Statist mentality, the Courts are now supposed to “manage” cases. This is of course quite an odd concept, bearing in mind that most judges are former barristers and have therefore absolutely no experience of managing how litigation runs, let alone understanding the underlying economic realities or even for that matter of running or organising a normal business! Yet these same people are now expected to “manage” access to perhaps the most important function that a State has (with the exception of defence), I mean the Administration of Justice!


You may well have heard of one of the products of Lord Justice Jackson’s staggering lack of common-sense in the case of the wronged MP, Mr Andrew Mitchell of so-called plebgate fame, in which the police appear to have lied about what he said. In the Mitchell litigation the courts in their un-wisdom have now ruled that no costs can be recovered from the newspaper which libelled him!


Even worse in recent cases the courts are now saying that if you are even slightly late in putting in your witness statements then you are not allowed to have your witnesses give evidence at the trial!



Tacky looking EU style zip up gowns!


I am normally not one to rush to the European Convention of Human Rights, but with such respect as I can muster for the Lord Justices now wearing their tacky looking EU style zip up gowns and no wigs (therefore no longer looking like traditional English Judges that you could respect), this is a blatant and obvious breach of one of the European Convention’s cornerstone rights, the right to a FAIR TRIAL in which the parties have “equality of arms”.


In my time as a lawyer this is the third time that there has been a mad-cap attempt at a top down reform of the Civil Justice system. In each case it has been motived by Europhile enthusiasm, in particular for the German model of Civil Justice. On each occasion the “reformers” have missed the key feature of the German system which makes that system bearable to the people under it, which is that it is the DUTY of the Court to make the right decision and not of lawyers to do anything other than to assist the Court in making the right decision.


In England the opposite is the case and it is the solicitors’ and barristers’ job to present their client’s case as effectively as they can and the Judge merely in effect arbitrates between the cases that are put before them.

For such a Judge to take on supposedly managing cases with no experience in practical life of doing so, is not only simply absurd, but it inevitably leads to widespread miscarriages of justice.


As a lawyer I feel ashamed that the supposed leaders of our profession should have lent their names to these “reforms”. As a politician, it is yet another example of the contemptible incompetence of our political class that this travesty has been imposed by the laughably mis-named “Ministry of Justice”.


If there was real justice then the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, which is such a splendid embodiment of the Victorian respect for the greatness of English law and justice, should be renamed the Royal Courts of Bureaucratic Nit-picking – that is for as long as the Queen will want her Title associated with such a betrayal of our traditions!


But then, of course, for those interested in legal history, we should not be surprised that justice is not safe in the hands of careerist Judges.

In England the reason why justice and common-sense was preserved within our Court system over the centuries was because Juries decided almost all cases of fact and, if the law was likely to work an injustice, very often made their findings in such a way as to ensure that a just result was obtained.


Of course English juries were until the late 1960’s rate payers only, so bring back jury trials for more complicated cases we might need a process whereby a decision was made as to the appropriate level of qualification required of jurors that was related to the complexity of the case.

7 comments:

  1. LOST CHANCE TO RAISE PARTY'S PROFILE.
    Once again it seems an opportunity has been lost. This time, by failing to contest the Wythenshawe and Sale West by-election with its national and international media interest. The town is natural ED territory (in marked contrast Kent). The leadership appears to have no concept of electoral strategy.
    Where in the Financial Times (which is currently running articles on Scottish and English nationalism) is there an article from the chairman about English nationalism?

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    1. Wythenshawe & Sale East is not especially fruitful territory. Wythenshawe, the larger part of the constituency, is basically a huge council estate and so has a natural loyalty to Labour (however misplaced that might be). The previous MP was a well-liked figure: a factor which can aid the incumbent party. As for Kent, I would think there are a number of promising locations in that part of the country.

      The Euro elections will be UKIP's party. The Scottish referendum, however, means that 2014 is a year with a lot of potential for the English Democrats. The media will, from time to time, seek an English point of view, and no-one from the mainstream parties is in a position to give that. Hopefully consciousness will rise amongst the English electorate that nobody in the Westminster and Whitehall establishment actually speaks for and acts on behalf of England.

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  2. Wythenshawe and East Sale is not natural Ukip territory, but the chances are that they will come second on Thursday. In fact most of the North is not natural Ukip territory (and increasingly a Tory free area). Precisely because it contains a huge council estate makes it a target area for the EDs and English nationalism. Kenty has pockets of white working class areas, but Kent as a whole is Ukip country; not English Democrats' country.
    As a military man, the chairman must know that you attack where the enemy is weakest, not where he is strongest, or you simply waste men and materiel..

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  3. I am hoping that many Scots will have watched Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall in Denmark last night and realised what Scotland could be like with independence. Cameron's antics at the Olympic Stadium were a total farce and his drumming the Cameron drum will only make true Scots want to throw up. According to Russia Today his name is meant to mean crooked nose. I thought it meant crooked mouth which is more appropriate.

    As for Denmark it is marked by homogeneity and trust and co-operation. A small country like Scotland could be the same. Denmark's strict immigration laws have meant there are problems with non-ethnic Danes, some of whom were on show but I don not believe they have been swamped as we and France have. Danes pay high taxes but think it worthwhile to ensure that everybody gets the same chances in life. And Denmark is officially, according to the UN, the happiest country on earth. Look at Denmark those north of the border and go for it so we, too, can be set free here in England. Don't listen to a word the likes of smarmy David has to say.

    Interestingly, also, Hugh came across a lady working for a sperm bank. Danish sperm is in great demand as white women across the world want children who are blond and blue eyed and healthy looking. Hugh betrayed his "fasicst" inner self by appearing to think this was a great idea. Is there hope that those who think whites should sacrifice themselges to create a world of brown people might be meeting some opposition. I say fascist because of course Hitler chose to use Danes in his propaganda films as they were even blonder than the Germans and especially than the Austrians many of whom like him had black hair and brown eyes. I am reading a book written by a lady who went to live in Iceland. An avowed left-winger she is shocked by the Icelandic attitude to foreigners and their wish to preserve their national identity. She says that being British now is an accident of birth. So there you have it and all this talk of indigenous British/English is just pure fascism.

    The referendum result in Switzerland is interesting but do not hold your breath for a similar thing happening here as Switzerland is a true democracy and English isn't more like a Marxist-monetary dictatorship. I was staggered by the number of immigrants Switzerland has taken in; a quarter of the population are now non-Swiss and they took in 80,000 last year into a population of 8m that is like 700,000 into Britain or more likely England. In view of the fact that much of Switzerland is mountains then no surprise that the Swiss are complaining of being crammed in like sardines. The EU of course will not let any treaty be revoked and the Swiss will need three years to try to get out of the free movement of labour agreement with the EU who are threatening to cancel their free trade agreements. There is no easy escape from the borderless multi-culti mish mash even if you are not in the EU as Norway is finding with Schengen forcing them to take East European criminals and third worlders via the EU.

    UKIP has informed me that the Somerset levels have been deliberately flooded as part of the EU's policy of flooding previous marshland - I don't know how the Dutch are faring - but it has just gone a bit too far.
    By the way Chris Smith is getting £60,000 for two days' work a week, an obscene amount for a public servant.

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  4. Further to the above, I caught Paul Nuttall of UKIP locking horns with the leader of the socialist grouping on the European Parliament, who sounded like an Austrian. It is becoming obvious that Switzerland is betraying the unholy alliance between international socialism and international capitalism. Whilst the socialists are fighting any change to the free movement of labour, Swiss big business are saying that the referendum result will harm the economy. The ordinary indigenous peoples of Europe are caught between left-wing ideology and the greed of big business and the banks.

    The Austrian gent told Paul that our immigration is down to the countries of the former empire but Paul said are borders are one hundred per cent controlled by the EU. Does anybody know if this is true? At the end, the Austrian, Mr Leiner I think, said that the EU was a club and that people must play by the rules. If they did not like it then they should leave; Paul, who always manages a smile, said that that is what we want to do. Meanwhile annother UKIP euro mp on RT was saying that people are now having their bank accounts robbed in Southern Europe to pay for austerity. So the socialist EU is robbing people to pay the bankers. That adds up from what I know.

    At last Cameron has got to the West Country claiming that he did not realise it was so bad. He of course did but did not care until the flooding got within spitting distance of Eton College.

    As regards the Empire, which I now wish we had never had as we would never have had to worry about our former empire and its aftermath, I see the Radio Times has the Afro-carribean Reggie Yates going to South Africa where he finds poor white squatting in parks. No protests for them outside the South African Embassy on their behalf because in today's leftist liberal West Europeans deserve everything they get. What I don't understand is why Mr Yates and his friends are not going to the dream that is post-Mandela South Africa to help. They complain that we took their ancestors from Africa by force and put them in European countries where they do not want to be but they do not return to Africa to help but leave that to the Europeans they are so embittered about.

    On another tack, as regards the British Empire, we now learn that Indians are in our banks and in Indian banks stealing identities for bogus students on student visas who then disappear once they get here. So this is the legacy of the empire, no building up the countries we have done so much harm to but rushing here to live on our coat tails. Once they are rid of us I hope they will be happy but I do hope they manage without us. Meanwhile in a forthcoming seminar by the Traditional Britain group there is talk of England's future since Enoch Powell's words on repatriation were ignored and rubbished. Will it, the speaker is asking, come to a form of apartheid state? Will traditional England have to carve itself a homeland living side by side with black England, coloured England, Indian England and Muslim England? Interested to just read by that way that Mandleson admitted to keeping us out of jobs whilst he invited the third world in to take our place. However, sadly, I fear it is now much too late, with one in four births being to foreign mothers, we will soon just be squeezed out of the country. Denmark looks a good bet.

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  5. Back to topic

    Robin,

    I've just looked at the Jackson Reforms and I can see what you are saying. I see the CFAs appear to be replaced by Damage Based Assessments next year.

    I've just been looking at some older, simpler legislation that we might be able to use.

    We must remember that the each political party provides a service when in government. Well if we look at the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, Section 13 in particular we can force any government to implement its manifesto.

    "In a contract for the supply of a service where the supplier is acting in the course of a business, there is an implied term that the supplier will carry out the service with reasonable care and skill."

    This means that we can sue the government, politicians, the MSM, the BBC on so on.

    We as consumers are also offered protection (at least as third parties) under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 if we are victims of racist attacks from ethnic minorities.

    What do you think Robin?

    BTW I am nearing completion of Genocide and Discrimination Report and will write as an CPR Part 35 Expert Witness.

    francis

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  6. My guess is that, even if we were allowed to vote to leave the EU, the EU would not let us do so. This is why Switzerland is to be subject to three years of negociations about ditching the free movement of labour agreement. The EU will threaten them until they give up. But there is worse on the horizon. Viewers of Russia Today will know that the Transatlantic Free Trade Area is being cobbled together in secret - what else? - between the EU and the US. It is aimed to benefit the usual suspects, the big banks and big business who will then reduce employee protection to the lowest common denominator in both areas. I suspect that this is why the banks have caused economic collapse so they should reshape the economies of Europe and North America in their mould. National governments desperate to revive their economies will just be forced to go along creating probably political union between North America and Europe and a body which will override all national governments and an area in which terrorists, people traffickers, employees and criminals will be able to wander at will and in which we will just be rootless slaves and pawns. All will be controlled by surveillance services so that any insurrection will be quashed by Big Brother, already into Facebook causing mischief.

    Interested to hear the Scottish BBC commentator at the Sochi games talk of Russia as a strong and virile nation. I don't think you have been able to say that about England or most western countries for 60 years.
    And look at our leaders, Clegg and Milliband who are weak and pathetic left-wing graduates. Cameron is a bit more forceful but is like the spivs and wide boys we knew in the War, a PR conman.

    Meanwhile the lady who is living in Iceland, whose book I am reading, is still shocked by the Icelanders' patriotism. She said that in Britain to call somebody unpatriotic is just unthinkable now and could not be viewed as an insult. So there you have it.

    Meanwhile, every time I see photo's of London it looks more and more like New York. Just as there where all the 19th century buildings have been replaced by concrete, London is going the same way. Of course, Gordon Brown would be delighted. Did he not speak of the two cities as being the twin pillars of the world's economies. And he called himself a socialist? but then he was, like Obama, probably just another left-wing place man acting for the plutocrats. The economic positions of London and New York are down to the 17th century Dutch and what Disraeli described with horror as Dutch Credit. They founded New York and came to London with William of Orange. The Low Countries have always been the place where money is more important than political freedom.

    Am I alone in feeling that there is a great darkness creeping over the world. This all encompassing evil seems to mirror the change in the climate. When I look at photographs of my family in the 1950s I can feel a light shining which seems to have gone out. I have reached the conclusion that it is the light of freedom, democracy, a homogeneous homeland, white hegemony, which is being replaced by third world hegemony. Where once we were free in our own homeland, now we are being forced to flee to the four corners of the earth. During the War Deanna Durbin sang a song called the Lights of Home. One by one those lights are going out and darkness is descending.

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